


Unfavored

by askarella



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Angst, Eavesdropping, Episode 13 spoilers, Ficlet, Heartbreak, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-09
Updated: 2018-04-09
Packaged: 2019-04-20 19:05:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14267589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/askarella/pseuds/askarella
Summary: Caleb eavesdrops on the group while hiding with Frumpkin and hears something he wishes he hadn't.





	Unfavored

 

 

There was one thing that Caleb Widogast knew with absolute certainty: the gods, with all their might, were naught but cruel to him. They created circumstances that fostered hope, inspiration, and comfort- and then they took it away in the cruelest of blows. Hiding in the cellar with the Beacon and the skeleton- Yoric, Caleb named him- his loneliness and anxiety got the better of him, and he decided to see through Frumpkin’s eyes.

The cat was sitting beside Fjord, the group all surrounding Nott. Nott, with her hair tied in a bit of the silver thread, defensive yet proud. Nott, her golden eyes more intelligent than most people he had ever met, her chest puffed in pride out as she talked, Caleb finally focusing in on the words. 

“...I am the parent, you do understand that, correct?” She spoke slowly, as though talking to an idiot child, “I protect him. He’s my boy and I keep him safe,” Caleb lost his focus for a moment as he felt his heart shatter. When he regained focus, she was still talking, “...because I love him and I am his protector, not because he protects me,”

The rest of the group clamored over this, and Caleb severed the connection with the cat. While not entirely unexpected, his heart was shattered by what he had seen and heard. 

_ How stupid, Caleb. _ He chided himself.  _ She thinks of you as a child, as her son! When you think of her as a partner! How arrogant to think that you even come close to her splendor!  _

But another part of him chimed in.  _ Ah, but she does love you- even if it is not the way you love her, even if it is as a son, she said that she loves you. _ He wiped away the tears that started to fall.  _ Maybe, in time, that will change. Perhaps, in time, you can make her see you as an equal, as someone she can love in the way you love her. But until then, isn’t knowing that you have her love enough? _

When she rejoined him and they had their little talk, his heart was pounding like it did every time it was just them and they were talking about magic. But the comforting dream after and awaking later to see her curled against him, those things left him with renewed hope. 

Yes, the gods seemed to love to torture him, but for her, he would keep up hope. For the woman he loved, the woman who loved him as a son, he would incinerate them all, just to make her happy- to make her proud.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for the prompt Nottmyfathercaleb on tumblr! this was fun, angst is a joy to write!


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